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How to Add a Favicon to Your Website

Mona — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:24:00 +0000

A Favicon

Have you ever visited a URL and wondered what that little symbol was on the left hand side of the browser bar? It’s a favicon and you can generate one to help brand your website and your business.

What is a Favicon Exactly?

Favicon stands for ‘favorites icon’ and they’re little icons or graphics associated with a website and generally positioned to the left of the URL in your browser bar.

Generally favicons come in a few basic sizes including:

* 16×16,
* 32×32,
* 48×48,
* 64×64,
* And 128×128

So How Do You Get These Little Icons to Attach Themselves to Your URL?

Well the easiest way to get one is to first use a Favicon generator. These handy little tools will help you convert an image, or your logo, into a favicon. You can also create your own favicon from scratch by drawing it with an icon drawing program.

The new icon will be saved as favicon.ico. From that point you will save the icon on your computer.

Next, upload the saved image to the root directory of your web space. If you have a webmaster, send them the image so they can upload it into your root directory.

The last step is to add a line of HTML to the header of your web pages. You’ll want to position it between your and tags.

It’ll look something like this.

http://www.yoururl.com/favicon.ico” />

This identifies your favicon to web browsers so they can display it whenever someone visits a page on your website.

The last step isto visit your URL in your browser and make sure the favicon is there. If not, double check your html for errors.

So Where Can You Find Favicon Generators and Icon Drawing Tools?

There are many free generators available online. Simply search using the terms “favicon generator” and you’ll find a number of them. And if you want to draw or create one yourself from scratch simply search for “favicon drawing tools” or “icon drawing”. If you have Photoshop, you can use Photoshop to create a favicon too.

The one I use is FavIcon from Pics 2.0. Not only can you create standard icons, but you also have the option to make an animated favicon. The other cool thing they have is a validator tool. It makes it super simple to make sure you installed everything correctly.

Adding a favicon to your website is a wonderful way to brand your business. And it’s simple and easy to do. Have fun with it, research other favicons on your favorite websites and your competitors and get creative.

How To Get More Newsletter Subscribers

Mona — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:10:14 +0000

Email Newsletters

Email newsletters are your key to regular communication, and promotion, to your company’s prospects. Getting your information in front of them on a regular basis increases the odds they’ll turn to you when they have a need. It increases front of mind awareness. However, in order to profit from your opt-in list, it’s important to grow your subscribers. Here are just a few ways to get more newsletter subscribers:

#1 Post back issues on your website. This will help both with your search engine optimization and you’ll give potential subscribers a taste of what you have to offer. Don’t worry too much about people not signing up because they have access to back issues. Most people want and appreciate the convenience of having content delivered to them instead of them having to go and look for it. Additionally, the timeliness of receiving content immediately rather than reading it three months after the fact holds tremendous value.

#2 Offer something really cool in exchange for subscribing. Free reports, online courses, audio and video products are all valued and will motivate prospects to subscribe. And if you’ve been offering something all along, freshen it up. Offer a new and improved product!

#3 Promote your online newsletter in your email signature, forum and social networking signatures and profile pages and any other business communications. People are curious and will likely click through to check out your website and newsletter. Once there, your offer will be so compelling they won’t be able to resist signing up!

#4 Cross promote with other relevant businesses. For example if your niche is pet training, cross promoting your newsletter with a website with a pet food niche is perfect. They get the benefit of your website subscribers and vice versa.

#5 Offer coupons and promotions exclusively for newsletter subscribers. Everyone, particularly in the present economy, is looking for ways to save money. Couple that with the fact that people like to belong to exclusive groups. When you offer potential subscribers the opportunity to save money and receive exclusive coupons and promotions, it’ll motivate them to sign up.

#6 Test the location of your sign up form. Generally, sign up forms are located on the right hand side of a website, and always above the fold. However, it’s always important to test. A/B Split testing is the simplest way to test form location. Create two identical landing pages with your newsletter sign up form in two different locations. Test for a week, a month, or six months – test until you have enough data to draw a reasonable conclusion. Consider also testing your call to action.

Your newsletter can be a great business building asset. Make sure people know about it and boost your newsletter subscription rate by using one or more of these suggestions.

How To Become a sought after VA

Mona — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Virtual Assistant

Being a Virtual Assistant is a great way to live the life you choose. You can work from home, or anywhere else you please, you can choose your customers and your hours. It gives moms the opportunity to have the best of both worlds and it gives everyone the freedom they desire. However to make the most of this amazing career, it helps to have clients knocking down your door. Here are the steps to become a sought after VA.

#1 Market yourself with a website and learn search engine optimization. Because many of your clients will be internet marketers, you’ll want to demonstrate your technology skills and knowledge, particularly if you offer SEO or website building tasks. Additionally, being that you’re a virtual assistant, many people are going to search for you in the virtual world, meaning online. Having a good page ranking with the search engines is a sure way to make it to the top of their list of services to check out.

#2 Broadcast yourself. Forums, article marketing and social networking are all a great way to share your knowledge, meet potential clients and interact. Share your skills, knowledge and personality online. It is said that the single biggest asset a small business owner has is their personality. Use yours to shine and stand out above your competition. Quite often, people will like you and look for a reason to work with you.

#3 Be ultra professional. You’re being hired to represent your client so that’s important, but perhaps more important is your ability to communicate effectively, follow up and meet deadlines.

#4 Specialize. While it may feel like the right thing to do is to be a “girl Friday” the better approach, the approach that enables you to raise your rates. Options for specialization include:
* Transcription
* Affiliate management
* Customer service
* Bookkeeping
* Formatting, posting, forum administration and so on.

You don’t have to specialize in one single task however, if you specialize in a type of task, affiliate management for example, then customers can trust that you know what you’re doing and are worth every penny you charge. You can also specialize in an industry.

#5 Price your services competitively. People will pay for exceptional service. Provide it and you can set your rates at the high end of your industry. First, of course, you’ll have to determine what that is. The good news is that while thereis a tremendous amount of competition online, rates aren’t determined by geographic region as salaries are. Research what other virtual assistants charge for specific services, learn what you need to know to be an expert in your chosen niche, and earn those high rates.

#6 Help people hire you. Your job is to make their lives easier, right? So do it right from the beginning. Offer packages, memberships, have rates posted right on your site. Make invoicing and payments as easy as clicking a button and consider charging clients by the task rather than by the hour. Lawyers charge by the hour and people always suspect them of padding their time. You don’t want customers to suspect the same of you.

#7 Reward referrals and don’t be afraid to ask for them. Also, ask for testimonials and use them. Word of mouth marketing is one of the best forms of marketing and it’s free – you can’t beat that ROI! One satisfied customer who tells three friends who tells three more friends each and suddenly your schedule is full!

Becoming a sought after VA requires a strategy and a little time and patience. Follow these seven steps and you’ll have as much work as you desire

How To Make More Affiliate Sales

Mona — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:08:25 +0000

Affiliate marketing is a wonderful way to make a living. Finding and promoting products you believe in can earn enough to make it possible to work from home or your moneymaking website can be a source of extra money to save, spend on travel or whatever your heart desires. And of course, the more affiliate sales you make, the better. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can make more affiliate sales.

#1 Consistently publish content. Whether you have a blog or a website, the key to drawing attention and earning top page ranking is through content. It’s also the best way to ‘presell’ which we’ll get into next. So what type of content can you publish? Here are just a few options:

* Autoresponders.
* E-newsletters.
* Blogs posts
* Social networking via forums, social networking sites, and chat rooms
* Articles
* Press releases
* Reports
* Ebooks
* Reviews
* Audio and video posts
* Ecourses
* Workbooks
The list could go on and on…

Step Two – Network. Networking, online and off, is a great way to spread the word about your business. Social networking in particular can be extremely effective for sharing your unique knowledge and expertise. You’ll drive more traffic to your website and thus increase your affiliate sales.

Step Three – Pre-sell. Your job as an affiliate is to pre-sell. That means you don’t have to give the heavy pitch just sharing information is enough. In fact, blatantly selling on your website may actually decrease your affiliate sales. Pre-sell by writing articles, courses, reviews, blog posts and other valuable and informative content about the products you have chosen to represent.

Step Four – Chose your affiliate products carefully. You not only want to choose quality products, you also want to choose products that have a good conversion rate. If you’re working hard to send traffic to their sales page, you deserve a sales page that converts. This leads to the next step.

Step Five – Track and test. Tracking and testing not only who comes to your site but how many conversion you make with each product and each promotion and/or marketing tool is the only way to ensure you make money and continue to increase your affiliate sales.

Make More Affiliate Sales

Finally, look for unique affiliate products and/or complimentary affiliate products. For example, if you’re an affiliate for a pet training business, a complimentary affiliate product might be pet training tools.

Being an affiliate can be a fantastic way to make a living and increasing your affiliate sales makes it all the more enjoyable. Creating your content is only the beginning, look for ways to broaden awareness of your website through networking and other internet marketing strategies, presell your products and share your knowledge and expertise with others.

How To Create Anchor Links

Mona — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:28:55 +0000

Anchor Links

Anchor links are an effective way to drive traffic to your website or to internal web pages by linking to them in your content. They’re usually referred to as a “link” or a “hyperlink”.

In many word processing programs, like MS Word, you can simply highlight the text you want to use to create the link and then click on the link icon in your toolbar. Once that pops up, you simply type or search for the appropriate page you want to link to and you’re good to go. If you convert that document into a PDF you’ll have to take extra measures or use the Adobe products themselves to retain the links but it’s fairly straightforward.

And many website development programs and interfaces give you the same look and feel. Joomla for example has a user interface that let’s you type and link in much the same manner you would as creating a Word document and WordPress works in much the same manner.

However, if you’re creating your links in a text document or using HTML to write your content and coding then you’ll need to know a few things.

First things first, by default,all links will appear as follows in all browsers:

* An unvisited link is underlined and blue
* A visited link is underlined and purple
* An active link is underlined and red

Understand the basics of HTML. In order to write your own anchor links you’ll need to know some basic html.

Here’s an example of what an anchor link would look like and what the various codes mean:

* The tag defines an anchor and closes the anchor
* href URL Specifies the destination of a link

So the following sentence which would appear to your readers as this:

If you’re new to the site click here for a brief site introduction.

Will look like this in your code

If you’re new to the site click here for a brief site introduction.

It’s pretty straight forward and easy to accomplish whether you’re doing the coding yourself or using a WSYWYG, what you see is what you get, type interface. Regardless, anchor links are a great way to link to specific pages in your content without detracting from the copy. And it has been proven that people commonly skip over banner ads but they’ll often click on the hyperlink in your content so it will result in more traffic going to chosen web pages.

How To Come Up With Creative Topics For Your Newsletter Content

Mona — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:41:13 +0000

Newsletter Content

Newsletters are a great way to keep in contact with your opt-in list. The trick is to continually come up with content that provides value and inspires your recipients to open the email newsletter and read the content. The trick, then, is to come up with exciting ezine topics. Here are a few suggestions to inspire and motivate you.

#1 Check your testing and tracking data to see which newsletters have the highest open rates. And see if there are any commonalities in the articles in each of those popular newsletters. You may find your audience really enjoys reviews or list articles and then you know that those types of content are exciting to your prospects and you can repeat that content in future ezines.

#2 Look at controversy going on in your industry. Whether your niche is fashion, gossip and entertainment or accounting and finance, or somewhere in between, there is always some sort of controversy brewing somewhere. Use that controversy to draw attention to your ezine, inspire open rates and generate a buzz in your community.

#3 Check out your forums, blogs, and social networking sites to see what people are talking about. What common questions or comments do people have and how can you spin that into an exciting article?

#4 Write lists. In almost every single industry, people love to read lists online. They’re easily consumable, infinitely valuable and you can even print them out and use them as a resource for the future. Consider writing a list type article for your next ezine and evaluating the results. Does your open rate increase? What about your forwards and downloads?

#5 Review products or services. Like lists, reviews are extremely valuable and they can also help you generate income if you’re an affiliate of the product or services you’re reviewing.

#6 Comment on late breaking news. Ezine articles can be written and scheduled way in advance however they can be edited and changed on the fly. That means when there is late breaking news in your industry or news that affects your customers and prospects, you can write about it and include it in your ezine.

#7 Finally, a great way to generate exciting ezine articles is to ask your readers what they want to know. Go directly to the source and ask them what they have questions about, what they’re interested in and how you can help them. In fact, you can print their question and then answer the question so your readers get to be included in your content. Kind of like a Dear Abby format, be sure to get their permission to print their question and use their name.

Exciting ezine content doesn’t have to be difficult or challenging to come up with. Take a look around you. What’s happening that’s relevant to your audience? What content do they respond to and how can you better help them solve their problems?

How To Get Your Website Ready for Holiday Sales

Mona — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:39:48 +0000

Holiday Sales

Are you looking forward to the Christmas season? For many online entrepreneurs, it’s a great time to increase their bottom line. It can be a hectic, exciting and very busy season. To make the most of this opportunity, your first best step is to make sure your website is ready for the Christmas sales.

Here’s how to get your website ready for the Christmas Sales

Step #1 Holiday Keyword Research

A great first step to get your website ready for the holidays is to optimize it for the holidays. Spend some time researching Christmas keywords and keyword phrases customers might use to find you. Then incorporate these keywords in your content, linking strategies and HTML coding.

Step #2 Consider adding Christmas to your website.
In addition to adding holiday products and promotions, consider adding holiday graphics too. This will help your website visitors get into the holiday spirit.

Step #3 Enhance your customer experience.

Give your holiday shoppers ever reason to stay at your website and to come back often. Make sure all your links are complete, all your graphics load quickly and all your downloads are easy to access and quick to download.

If you sell products, give your visitors a user friendly search option so they can find what they need immediately and make sure your website is pleasant to look at and easy to move around in.

Step #4 Is your software ready to support you?

How does your shopping cart software serve you? Is it capable of handling an increase in traffic? Can it handle any special promotions you may have created for the holiday season? What about your server? Make sure all of your supporting systems and software is ready to step up to the challenge of the Christmas season.

Step #5 Transparency and authenticity

Today’s customers are perceptive and they’re careful to shop with retailers that not only provide them with a positive customer experience but also retailers who take the extra steps to protect and respect their customers. Make sure your policies and procedures are easy to find and understand. Additionally, publish your privacy statements and make customers aware of any terms and conditions involved in their transactions.

Customers expect retailers to be transparent and authentic. Publishing your policies on your website, protecting them when they make financial transactions and making sure to protect their privacy goes a long way to earning their respect and their business.

As the holidays rapidly approach, your first and potentially most effective strategy to capitalize on the Christmas season, is to make sure your website is ready for some action. Get your website ready and enjoy the holiday season knowing profits are rolling in and business is booming.

How To Throw a “Holiday Sale” Online and Make Money

Mona — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:21:13 +0000

Holiday Sale

The holidays are a great time to make some exceptional income. It’s also a great time to boost website traffic, opt-ins and increase awareness. So how do you accomplish all this during the busiest season of the year?

Step One: Make sure your website is in great shape. Before you send tones of new traffic to your website, it’s important to make sure your website is ready. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

* Is your shopping cart functioning optimally?
* Do you have any broken links? If so, fix them.
* Is your site easily searchable?
* Does the navigation make sense?
* Are your customers’ transactions secure?
* Does your website load quickly?
* Is your website backed up?

Step Two: Optimize your site for the holidays. The holiday season presents a unique opportunity to capitalize on a few holiday phrases and keywords. Using standard optimization techniques, research the keywords your audience might use to find you during the holidays and optimize your site for them.

Step Three: Create holiday promotions. The holidays present a unique promotional opportunity. Here are just a few options to consider:

* A Holiday discount.
* A Free trial.
* A packaged discount.
* A free bonus.
* Free delivery.
* A buy now pay later option.
* Loyalty programs

Step Four: Consider creating or adding new holiday products or services. The options for creating new products or services are vast. If you’re a service provider brainstorm ways you can help your clients enjoy the holidays. What do they need that you can provide?

If you sell products, tangible or electronic, then you have unlimited options. Consider:

* Creating new information products
* Launching a membership site or promotion
* Partnering with a relevant business to create a product together.
* Packaging or combining products for the holidays.

Step Five: Marketing your website and holiday sale. Once you have your website ready, your products and promotions ready to go, it’s time to market your holiday sale. Some marketing options and ideas include:

* Cross promotion with other relevant businesses.
* If you already have an e-newsletter, consider increasing the delivery frequency during the holidays.
* Holiday advertising campaigns.
* Social networking and face-to-face networking.
* Customer loyalty programs are a great way to motivate purchases and they offer the perfect marketing opportunity. You can create press releases and an ad campaign to market your new loyalty program.
* Enhance article marketing efforts.
* Email marketing to your list.
* Using your wonderful affiliates to market your products or services.

When throwing a holiday sale online, savvy entrepreneurs know it takes more than throwing up a sign and placing a red bow on your header. It takes preparation, research, planning and thoughtful execution. Always remember, your business is about your customers. When you make their shopping experience exceptional and consider there wants, needs and desires, your holiday sale will be a verifiable success.

How To Write a Vision Statement

Mona — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:03:49 +0000

Write a Vision Statement

When writing a business plan one of the first things you’ll be asked to do is to write a vision statement. This isn’t a trivial moment. In fact, your vision statement can guide your success for years to come. Here’s how to write a vision statement that will help you accomplish your business dreams and goals.

Your vision statement is defined as what youwant for your business. It is different from a mission statement because your vision is all about you. Your vision statement defines what you want your business to become.

It may answer the following questions:

* Who is your ideal customer?
* What is your business product or service?
* Do you have a geographic reach?

Your vision statement will also be stated in the present tense – as if it is happening now even though you may be looking a few years into the future.

Your vision statement will be emotional. Remember this is about you and your definition of success. If you’re not emotional and passionate about it, no one else will be either.

Your vision will be powerfully descriptive. Add as much detail as you can muster. Know that this isn’t a test. There isn’t a right or wrong answer. Your vision statement is personal. You can write out a very rough draft and then hone it to make it fit your vision perfectly.
Your vision is the foundation for your business. It is the tool you will use to measure your success by and the tool with which you’ll base your business decisions on, so this is an important step. Your vision is allowed to change – this isn’t set in stone.

Ready to Write Your Vision Statement?

Step #1 Write a list of facts about your business. List your goals, strengths, benefits and so on.

Step #2 Now write a statement about what you want your business to be.

Step #3 Combine your statement and the items in your list that stand out, create your vision statement. Remember, this is only an exercise, you may write and rewrite your vision statement twenty times before you hit on one that resonates with you. In fact, it’s a great idea to let your vision statement sit in your thoughts for a couple days before deciding.

Remember, your vision statement is an essential part of your business plan. Imagine creating a business without it. Many do and they’re short lived. Imagine trying to make a decision about hiring, about your business model, about marketing without knowing what it is exactly that you want your business to be and where you want it to go. You can’t.
Your vision is the foundation for your success. It is the starting place on your roadmap to riches. Combined with your mission statement, you’ll have what you need to build a successful and sustainable online business.

How To Use a Business Plan

Mona — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:39:27 +0000

Write A Business Plan

Writing a business plan is the first step to developing a successful and profitable business however once you have it written putting it in a drawer to yellow with age is the last thing you want to do.

Your business plan is powerful! It will help guide your every decision and strategy.

Your business plan isn’t a commandment set in stone, it’s a plan, which means it changes as your business changes. Your business plan is an ever evolving business tool, and one of your best assets.

Once you’ve created your business plan, it will:

* Guide your decisions based on your company mission and vision
* Help you create marketing strategies to attain your financial and sales goals
* Help you create a budget
* Outline how you’ll track money, incoming and outgoing.
* Provide lenders a financial blueprint for your business
* Gives flow chart of all aspects of your business from marketing to accounting so that all your bases are covered.
* Defines your target market.
* Documents your goals and your plans to attain them.

So knowing your business plan can help you accomplish all this is great, but how is a more important question.

Developing A Business Plan

Step #1 25% of your time, at a minimum, will be spent planning your business. Your business plan is the foundation for this planning. If it’s comprehensive, it will guide your decisions, outline your goals and help you create strategies to achieve them. So, schedule a planning day each week. If you plan to work 10-12 hours a week then three hours of that time will be planning time, schedule it in and make it happen.

Step #2 When planning make sure to refer to your vision and mission statement to make sure you’re staying on course. If your vision is to become the single biggest online source for chocolate chip cookie recipes then your strategies and decisions should reflect that. If you’re offered an opportunity to partner with a baking website then you’ll need to see if that partnership supports your vision.

Step #3 Use your tracking tools to keep you on target. Your business plan will have a budget in it as well as a financial analysis and cash flow forecast. These are items that you’ll want to maintain and use on a monthly basis so you stay on top of your cash and create optimal cash flow management policies and procedures. However, tracking tools don’t stop there. You’ll also want to use the tracking tools to analyze traffic to your website and so on.

Step #4 When planning, don’t forget to use your business plan to stay on track with your target audience. You’ve defined it in your plan however, as time goes by and as you track your sales, visits and so on, you may find your target audience changes. Update your business plan to reflect your target audience and make decisions based on that information.

Planning is one of the most important tasks an entrepreneur faces and your business plan is your most effective planning tool. Create a thorough business plan and use it regularly to grow your business.